F 258 ; 

copy 1 JOEL LANE, 

PIONEER AND PATRIOT. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL. SKETCH. 






INCLUDING NOTES ABOUT THE LANE FAMILY AND 

THE COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY 

OF WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. 



MARSHALL DELANCEY HAYWOOD. 



REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD 



RALRHiH, N. C. : 

Alpohi), Hyni'm iSc CiiRiSTOi'UKRs. B()ol< :iml .I<>li rrintcrs. 

190U. 






TWO COPIES RKCElVeiD, 

L iurary cf CSRgr08% 
Offleo of tlii 

APR \ 1900 

Kegitt«r of Copyrlghfft 



61035 

Copyrighted, March, 1900, 
by Marshall Del^neey Haywood. 



SECOND COPY. 



TO 
''MY NATIVE HEATH '' 

THE (lOOI) OLD COUNTY OF WAKE 

THESE PAGES 
ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



JOEL LANE, 

A PIONEER AND PATRIOT OF WAKE COUNTY 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



^^^ HOUGH comparatively few of tlie name now re- 
^^main in the State, tlie family of Lane was one of 
the most numerous, as well as influential, in the 
province of North Carolina. It is said to be collater- 
ally descended from Sir Ralph Lane, who, with Sir 
Richard Grenville and other bold adventurers, sailed 
from Plymouth, England, in 1585, and founded (in 
what is now North Carolina), the Colony of Roanoke, 
of which Lane became Governor — the first English 
Governor in America. This Colony, as is well known, 
had no permanent existence, and Governor Lane re- 
turned to Great Britain where he died — in Ireland — 
in 1G04, three years prior to the first permanent Amer- 
ican settlement, at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The 
father of this Sir Ralph was Sir Ralph Lane, of Or- 
lingbury, whose wife, nee Parr, was a first cousin of 
Katherine Parr, the sixth Queen of that exemi^lary old 
Mormon, King Henry VIII. 

Not many years after Jamestown was founded, sev- 
eral other members of the Lane family came to Vir- 
ginia, and their descendants aided in the permanent 
settlement of North Carolina. 

This alleged connection between Sir Ralph and the 
Lanes of Colonial Virginia, from whom spring the 
Lanes of North Carolina, is vouched foi* only by tra- 



6 



clition, but this tradition exists in many separate and 
divergent branches of the family. Whether it should 
be taken cum grano sails, let the reader judge. 

" I cannot tell how the truth may be ; 
I say the tale as 'twas said to me." 

After removing to North Carolina, the Lanes lived 
j)rincipally in the eastern section of the State. They 
were useful members of society and adherents of the 
Church of England. In Halifax County quite a num- 
ber of the family settled, and there was born Joel 
Lane, the subject of this sketch. His father, Joseph 
Lane, of Halifax, married Patience McKinne, a daugh- 
ter of Colonel Barnabas McKinne, Jr. 

Of this Colonel McKinne the writer is unable to 
speak further than to observe that he was a resident of 
North Carolina and died in the year 1736, leaving 
quite a number of descendants, several of whom bore 
his full name. Through him the name of Barnabas 
was also introduced into the Lane family. 

The above mentioned Joseph Lane, of Halifax (who 
died about 1774), had five sons, all of whom left issue. 
They were : Joel, of whom this sketch will treat at 
length; Joseph,* who married Ferebee Hunter, and 
died in Wake County in 1798 ; James, f who married 
Lydia Speight, and died in Wake County on January 
6, 1805; Jesse, t who married Winifred Aycock, and 



*Joseph left a son and a grandson, both named Joseph. They should not be con- 
fused with General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, who, as hereinafter mentioned, was a 
grandson of Jesse Lane. 

+There seems to have been a superfluity of James Lanes: (1) James Sr., above 
mentioned — Col. Joel's brother; (2) James, son of Col. Joel; (3) James, son of an- 
other Joel, and grandson of James, Sr, I think there were some Lanes in other 
parts of the State, who also bore this given name. 

tin the State Records, Vol. XVI., p. 1101, it appears that a Jesse Lane enlisted for a 
three j'ears term of service on March 1, 1777, in Cai)tain Jacob Turner's Company, 



died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1804; and Barnabas,'^ 
who died about 1775. Barnabas had three children : 
Martin, Barnabas, Jr., and a daughter, Jean. His 
son Martin — born 1755, died 1825 — served in the Rev- 
olutionary war, was one of the earliest landowners in 
Raleigh, and died in Giles County, Tennessee, leav- 
ing descendants. 

General Joseph Lane, the "Marion of the Mexican 
War," who was Governor of Oregon and United States 
Senator, as well as a distinguished soldier, was the 
son of John Lane and his wife Betsey Street. This 
John was a son of Jesse and a nephew of Joel. 

When General Lane was a candidate for Vice Pres- 
ident of the United States in 1860, he visited Raleigh 
in July of that year and was entertained at the coun- 
try-seat of his kinsman, the late Henry Mordecai, just 
north of the city. To this entertainment every mem- 
ber of the Lane connection, who could be found, was 
invited. Mr. Mordecai' s residence was originally built 
by his grandfather, Henry Lane, eldest son of Joel ; 
but afterwards, in 1824, was added to and remodeled 
under the supervision of AVilliam Nichols, who also 
altered the architecture of the old Capitol, which was 
destroyed by fire on the 21st of June, 1831. 

It has sometimes been stated that the late Governor 



Third North Carolina Continontals. Captain Turner was kilh'd at tlu* Battlo of (ier 
mantown in the following October. After Jesse's enlistment had expired, he af?ain 
entered the service; for I)}- n-ference to the manuscript books, entitled " Army Ac- 
counts," in the office of the State Auditor, at Ralei/^h, Vol. lU, Section A. A., p. 50. 
will be found the entrj^: "Allowed Jesse Lane for pay to tlie first of January, 17b2, 

including interest, the first day of Auf?ust, 1783 175. 11. "K" (iovernor Swain, in 

the letter presently given, says that Jesse moved to Georgia before this (in 1779). 
Qufere : Were there two Jesse's, or did Jes.se of Wake send his family to Georgia, 
and follow them later? 

*See abstract of the will of his grandfather, Co'. Barnabas McKinne, Jr., in tlie 
North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, Vni. l.,ii, 61, (January, lUdo). 



8 



Henry Smith Lane, of Indiana, was descended from the 
Lanes of Wake County. This, as the writer learns 
from a member of the family in Indiana, is a mistake; 
though the Governor was probably of the same stock, 
for his ancestors were of Virginia origin, as were also 
the Lanes of North Carolina. 

After General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, had won a 
great reputation in the war with Mexico and was gain- 
ing distinction in national politics, a gentleman in 
Tennessee, desiring to know something of the history 
of the Lane family, wrote in 1859 to ex-Governor 
Swain (then President of the University of North Car- 
olina, and a first cousin of the General), for the infor- 
mation desired. Governor Swain's reply was pub- 
lished in the Memphis Avalanche^ and was afterwards 
copied in the North Carolina Semi- Weekly Standard, 
a paper x^nblished at Raleigh, in its issue of July 21, 
1860, when Lane was a candidate for Vice President. 
Commenting upon it, the editor of the Standard ob- 
served that in old Buncombe where General Lane was 
born, there was a " Lane's Pinnacle," a " Lane's Mine 
Hole Gap," and "Lane's Iron Works," named for his 
family. 

The letter of Governor Swain is so rej>lete with in- 
formation concerning the whole connection that we 
give it in full : 

OiTAPEL Hill, October 23rd, 1859. 

Dear Sir: — Your letter of the 14th, owing to my absence in the dis- 
charge of official duties, did not reach me' until a day or two since, 
and I avail myself of the earliest practicable opportunity to reply. 

There is probably no family whose authentic history can be more 
clearly traced through every period of the annals of North Carolina 
than that of General Lane's. In proportion to numbers, compara- 
tively few of its members have aspired to or obtained political dis- 



9 



tinction, or indeed distinction of any kind. On the other hand there 
are probably few tliat have enjtiyed greater averaj^e res])ectability. 

CJeneral Lane's great-grandfather, Joseph (who signed his name Jo- 
seph T.ane, Jr., in 1727), died at his residence near Halifax, on the lio- 
anoke, in 1776.* His three sons — Joel, Joseph, and Jesse — were pi- 
oneer settlers in the neighborhood of Raleigh, in 1741. Of these. Col- 
onel Joel was the wealthiest and most conspicuous. He conveyed to 
the State 640t acres of land, the site of the present City of Raleigh. 
His dwelling-house, at the period of its erection the best within a 
hundred miles, is the present residence of William Boylan, Esq. All 
three were Whigs during the Revolution, and Colonel Joel and Jesse 
did service in the army, the latter as a private*. 

Jesse was the grandfather of General Joseph Lane and of myself. 
He was born in Halifax, July 4th, 1733, and married Winifred Acock. 
They had sixteen children — eight sons and eight daughters — all of 
whom lived to rear families. In 1779 my grandfather emigrated to 
Wilkes, now Oglethorpe County, Gai, where he resided until 1800; 
then he removed to St. Louis, where he died in 1804. 

General Lane is the son of John Lane, the eighth child and fourth 
son of our grandfather Jesse. At the time of the removal of the fam- 
ily to Georgia (1779), Wilkes was a frontier County, and, during a 
series of years subject to frequent incursions from the Creeks and 
Cherokees. There were no members of the family able to bear arms, 
whose services were not put into requisition, and no one male, or 
female, who were not familiar with the horror of savage warfare. My 
mother beguiled many an hour during my infancy, in the recital of 
hair-breadth escapes, which, delicate woman as she w^as, rendered her 
personal history one of remarkable suffering and adventure. 

I have no recollection of my grandfather or uncle John. The former 
visited my father on his way to Missouri, and thelatter was an inmate 
of our family for some time previous to and subse(]uent to my birth. 
I heard much of him in my boyhood, and sui)pose that in all respects 
the son is a counterpart of the father, brave, enterprising, and gen- 
erous. He was a universal favorite in the midst of the men who 
fought at the Cowpens and King's ]\Iountain, and who considered a 
foray among the Indians as little less than a pastime. 



♦Error— he died in the winter of 177:}-"7l.— M. DkL. H. 

+At a hiter (lute, MM, (governor Swain makes n more accurate .statement (in liis 
Tucker Hall Address) of the amount of land sold by Lane, to-wit : l.(JO<» acres, 4tH) 
icres of which were laid off into lots and the remainder held, for the time Ijeing, 
i.y the State.— M. DkL. U. 

JSee last note on p. 0, ante. — M. DkL. II. 



10 



General Lane's mother was Betsy, daughter of James Street, the 
first Sheriff of my native County (Buncombe). The descendants of 
the sixteen children of Jesse are dispersed through all of the Western 
and Southern States. 

I enter into these particulars simply to satisfy you that whilst the 
family of General Lane have no just pretensions to the pride of her- 
aldry, there is no cause, on the other hand, why they should blush for 
his ancestry or his connections. 

I write in unavoidable haste, but will be ready at any time to com- 
municate more special information if it shall be called for. 
Yours very respectfully, 

D. L. SWAIN. 

Many years before Wake County was formed, Joel 
Lane liad settled at the point wliicli afterwards became 
its county-seat, and was later tlie capital of tlie State. 
His place of residence was called Bloomsbury, and was 
then within the territory of Johnston Connty. Land 
was taken from Orange and Cumberland, as well as 
Johnston, for the formation of Wake, and Mr. Lane 
was one of the commissioners who laid out its boun- 
daries. The new county was established by the colo- 
nial assembly in December, 1770, with a proviso that 
the act of creation should not take effect until March 
12, 1771. Governor Tryon, for whose wife, neeWsike 
— and not " Esther Wake " — it was named, formally 
signed the charter on May 22, in the latter year. * 

The first court was held on the 4th of June, 1771. 
Theophilus Hunter was chairman, and Joel Lane and 
his brother Joseph were among the members of this 
tribunal. t The other justices were : Benjamin Hardy, 
James Martin, Hardy Sanders, Abraham Hill, Thomas 
Wooten, James Jones, Tingnall Jones and Thomas 
Crawford. 



*Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., pp. 299, 333, 334. Copy of charter in court-house of 
Wake County. Chapter 22, Laws of 1770. 
+Court Records of Wake County. 



11 



In the early si>ring of 1771, when Governor Try on 
raised an army to snppress the insnrrection of the 
Reguhitors, the principal place of rendezvons for his 
forces was AYake Cross Roads, Avhere Raleigh now 
stands. Colonel John Hinton, Lane's father-in-law, 
then commanded the connty militia and marched nn- 
der Tryon to the scene of action, in wiiicli he bore a 
conspicuous part.* Of Colonel Hinton' s conduct on 
this occasion, and afterwards at the battle of Moore's 
Creek Bridge, during the Revolution, Governor Cas- 
well says: ''In both instances I was an eye-wit- 
ness and can venture to assert he behaved with be- 
coming bravery and resolution."! At Alamance the 
Regulators were routed in the battle fought on May 16, 
1771. AVhile waiting for reinforcements during that 
campaign, Governor Tryon located his headquarters 
near the present Fayetteville road at Hunter's Lodge, 
the residence of Theo^^hilus Hunter. This was some 
distance southeast of Spring Hill, later the home of 
Tlieophilus Hunter, Jr. For three days, from the 5th 
to the 8th of May, the army remained there. As 
the old road was too rough to carry artillery over, 
Tryon had a new one cut in the direction of the 
Regulators' country. After a town in Kent, Eng- 
hmd, he called it '' Ramsgate Road." That classic 
h>cality near Raleigh, now known as Raincat, derives 
its name from this circumstance. When the army 
marched l)ack from Alamance, Colonel Hinton' s de- 
tachment was disbanded at Wake Court-IIouse on the 
22nd of June. On the day before this, Governor Tryon 
l)ade his army farewell, and Id't for New York, liav- 



*Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., pp. fiTrt, 7<U. 
fState Records, Vol. XII., p. 707. 



12 



ing been appointed Governor of that Province.* He 
was succeeded, as Governor of North Carolina, by 
Josiah Martin, who remained in office until driven out 
during the Revolution. AVhether Joel Lane served 
in the Alamance campaign is not known, but he prob- 
ably did, for his name appears as Lieutenant-Colonel 
of Colonel Hinton's Regiment on a roster made out in 
1772. t 

For many years Colonel Lane was a Justice of the 
County Court of Wake ; and during the war for Inde- 
pendence, he was at one time its presiding Justice.:}: 
Throughout the entire conflict with Great Britain, he 
served with fidelity in many imjiortant civil stations. 
Together with John Hinton, Michael Rogers, Theoph- 
ilus Hunter, Tingnall Jones, || John Rand and Thomas 
Hines, he represented Wake County in the Provincial 
Congress at Hillsborough in August, 1775, and that 
body, on Sej)tember 9, elected him a member of the 
Committee of Safety for the Hillsborough District. § 
John Hinton and Michael Rogers were likewise elec- 
ted members of this Committee. On September 9, 1775, 
the above named Congress also elected militia officers 
for Wake County as follows : John Hinton, Colonel ; 
Theophilus Hunter, Lieutenant-CoLmel ; John Hin- 
ton, Jr., First Major; Thomas Hines, Second Major. 
When the militia was reorganized, on April 22, 1776, 
these officers were continued in the same rank.Tf 

Michael Rogers succeeded Hunter in 1778 ; for, by 

♦Colonial Records, Vol. VIII., pp. C75, 676. 
fOolonlal Records, Vol. IX., p. 'dU. 
JCourt Records of Wake. 

lIThis gentleman (whose signature I have seen) wrote liis lirst name as here 
given, but I think his son and namesake signed himself Tignall or Tignal. 
$Oolonial Records, Vol. X., pp. 106. 215. 
irColonial Records, Vol. X., pp. 207, 582. 



18 



the minute docket of the Court of Pleas and Quarter 
Sessions in that year, it appears that on the 19th of 
February, "Michael Rogers, Esq"", produced into Court 
a commission from His Excellency Richard Caswell, 
Esq'", Governor, constituting him Lieutenant Colonel 
for the County of Wake; came into Court and quali- 
fyed agreeable to law." Hardy Sanders likewise held 
that rank at a later period, and James Hinton was 
either a Colonel or a Lieutenant Colonel. 

In the Provincial Congress which assembled at Hal- 
ifax in- April, 1776, Colonel Lane again represented 
Wake County." His colleagues in this body were 
John Hinton, John Rand, Tingnall Jones, and William 
Hooper. The last named, though put down as a del- 
egate from Wake, was not a resident of the county, 
but came from the eastern part of the State. He was 
one of those, who, a few months later, made their 
names immortal by signing the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence at Philadeli:)hia. While a member of this 
Provincial Congress, Mr. Hooper was also a member 
of the Continental Congress. 

Colonel Lane did not serve in the Provincial Con- 
gress which met at Halifax in November, 1776. The 
delegates from Wake County in that body werB Ting- 
nall Jones, Michael Rogers, James Jones, Britain Ful- 
ler, and John Rice.f 

From February, 1778, till September, 1779, Joel 
Lane was Entry Taker ;:j: and, for thirteen terms, rep- 
resented Wake County in the State Senate, At that 
time the Legislature met annually, and sometimes 



•Coloniul Rocords. Vol. X., p. 501. 
+Coloiiial Krcords, Vol. X., p. fll5. 
J Court Records of Wake. 



14 



oftener. During the Revolution, James Jones was the 
first to hold the office of Senator, in 1777. The follow- 
ing year, Michael Rogers succeeded him and held until 
1782, when Colonel Lane was elected. Up to the year 
of his death (with the exception of one term when his 
brother-in-law, James Hinton, defeated him in 1793), 
Colonel Lane continued to serve. "^ Those who repre- 
sented Wake County in the House of Commons dur- 
ing the Revolution were : John Rand, Tingnall Jones, 
Lodowick Alford, Hardy Sanders, Thomas Hines, John- 
Hinton, Jr., Nathaniel Jones, the elderf (of Crab tree), 
John Humphries, Burwell Pope, James Hinton, and 
Theophilus Hunter. :t 

On June 23, 1781, while the war was raging with its 
greatest fury, the Legislature met at Wake Court- 
House.§ For want of a more commodious edifice, Col- 
Lane's residence was used as the place for assembling. 
At this session, Thomas Burke was elected to succeed 
Abner Nash as Governor. 

A ludricrous reminder of the depreciation in x^aper 
currency caused by the gloomy prospects for the suc- 
cess of the American cause, is the official record! that 
when Colonel Lane was paid for the house-rent, pas- 
turage for horses, etc., used by the above Legislature 
during this session of less than one month's duration, 
the amount voted him was fifteen thousand pounds ! 



nVheeler's History of North Carolina, Part II., pp. 421, 422. 

fThere were three gentlemen in Wake County bearing the name of Nathaniel 
Jones: (1) Nathaniel Jones, of Orabtree ; (2) his father, Nathaniel Jones, Sr., men- 
tioned above ; (3) Nathaniel Jones, of White Plains. The last named was not con- 
nected with the Jones family of Orabtree except by marriage. In old county rec- 
ords they were usuallj' distingxiishcd by placing the letters G. T. for Orabtree, and 
W. I', for White Plains, after their names. 

tWheeler's History. Part II., pp. 421. 422. 

$State Records, Vol. XVII., pp. 794,877. 

llState Records, Vol. XVII., pp. 876, 977. 



15 



or about thirty thousand doUars (a pound was then 
only two dollars). This was many times as great as the 
sum paid by the State for the Lane plantation (where 
Raleigh is built) after the war, when money was worth 
more than the paper it was i^rinted on. 

During the Revolution those who occupied the office 
of High Sheriff of Wake (then a station of great im- 
portance) were : Thomas Hines, from June, 1775, till 
June, 1777 ; Thomas AVooten from June, 1777, till 
September, 1780 ; Hardy Sanders, from Sei3tember, 
1780, till September, 1782 ; Britain Fuller, from Sep- 
tember, 1782, until after peace was declared. " 

After the end of hostilities, Colonel Lane exerted 
every effort to allay the bitterness which had arisen 
while the war was in j^rogress, and befriended many 
Loyalists who were objects of hatred to a less generous 
element of the Whigs than that to which he belonged. 
Among other Tories, who had reason to be thankful 
for his good offices, was Colonel John Hamilton, whom 
he probably knew before the war, as both were from 
Halifax County. Hamilton was one of the bravest 
and most active officers siding with the King, and a 
man of character, who had treated American prisoners 
with more than ordinary kindness, though even this 
(lid not save his estates from confiscation. For some 
years after the Revolution, he was British Consul at 
Norfolk, Virginia, and finally went to England, where 
he died. Serving on Hamilton's staff was a young en- 
sign, Dugald McKethen, who became a useful and re- 
spected citizen of Raleigli al'tei" the return of peace, 
and married one of Colonel Lane's daughters. 



*Court Records of Wake. 



16 



In the time treated of by tliis sketch, Wake County 
abounded in large game, and hunting was a favorite 
pastime. ^ Just inside, and westward of the southern 
entrance, of Capitol Square in Raleigh, there is still 
living a large sassafras tree, which was a famous deer- 
stand. The writer learned this from his father, the 
late Dr. Richard B. Haywood, who personally remem- 
bered one of Colonel Lane's nephews, Edmund Lane, 
who himself claimed to have killed nearly forty deer 
there. 

Before the Revolutionary war, and during that 
struggle, the caj)ital of North Carolina was some- 
what migratory. It was, as a rule, located where 
the Governor happened to reside, for that functionary 
usually summoned the Legislature to meet at the x)lace 
which best suited his convenience. So, after inde- 
pendence had been achieved, the State Convention, 
which met at Fayetteville in 1788, gave the General 
Assembly instructions to fix permanently the capital, 
provided it should be within ten miles of Isaac Hunter' s 
j)lantation in Wake County, which radius was chosen 
on account of its central location. Nine Commission- 
ers were appointed to purchase a site, but only six 
attended the meeting which was held for that purpose. 
Those present were : Frederick Hargett, Chairman, 
William Johnston Dawson, Joseph McDowell, James 
Martin, Thomas Blount, and Willie Jones. The mem- 
bers of this board were from different x)arts of the State. 
They had to choose from seventeen tracts which were 
offered. In reference to their decision, the Honorable 
Kemp P. Battle, in his 1892 Centennial Address on Ral- 
eigh, says that the Hinton tract on Neuse river received, 
on the first ballot, three of the six votes cast ; the tract 



17 



offered by Joel Lane received two ; and the other vote 
was cast for land owned by Natlianiel Jones, of AVhite 
Plains, near the present village of Gary. As a major- 
ity was not received by either tract on this baUot, the 
board adjourned until next day. Continuing his ad- 
dress. Dr. Battle says : 

'' Willie Jones was a master of the art of persua- 
sion and was an intimate friend of Joel Lane. Lane 
liimself was a man of influence, who had served tlie 
State in the Colonial Congress and as Senator for ten 
years in succession. Very i)robably he offered new 
inducements as to j^rice. At any rate, on Friday, the 
8()th of March, a second ballot was taken, with the 
result that Wake Court House received five votes, and 
the llinton land received only one vote. Possibly 
Lane was adversely criticised for his tactics in win- 
ning tlie contest. There was abundant room for un- 
pleasant talk on account of his entertaining the Com- 
missioners at his house. They were acting as judges, 
and were certainly, notwithstanding their high char- 
acter, liable to the criticism that they ate the bread of 
one of the litigants. I cannot find their accounts of 
expenses, but it is altogether pro])al)le that they, paid 
for their entertainment. I notice that Lane was Sen- 
ator from 1782 to 1702, l)()th inclusive, but that in the 
next year James Hinton had his place. This is some 
evidence that the Hinton family resented his success 
in the negotiation and that the people took their side. 
If so, the displeasure was evanescent, for he was Sen- 
ator again in 1704 and 171)r)." 

James Iredell (afterwards a .ludge of the United 
States Supreme Court) introduced the Convention or- 
dinance requiring the capital to be located in Wake 



18 



County, and the name " Raleigh " is said to have been 
first suggested for the new city by Governor Alexander 
Martin. 

As Colonel Lane's residence was the most important 
house at Bloomsbury, or Wake Cross-Roads, before 
Raleigh was laid out, he was often inconvenienced by 
the number of travellers who claimed his hospitality. 
To get rid of those who were not his personal friends, 
he caused to be erected a small ordinary — or of nary 
as it was called by the natives. This old inn was 
afterwards turned into a school-house, and is now used 
as an out-building to a residence on the north side of 
Hillsborough street, between McDowell and Dawson. 
It is about three-quarters of a mile in an easterly di- 
rection from where the old Lane homestead stands, 
and somewhat resembles the architecture of that build- 
ing. 

Two blocks north of Capitol Square, in Raleigh, 
one of the city's thoroughfares, running east and west, 
is called Lane Street in honor of the former owner of 
the soil. 

Colonel Lane was one of the first Trustees of the 
University of North Carolina, and (on November 5, 
1792,) offered that institution a gift of six hundred 
and forty acres of land, near the plantation of Nathan- 
iel Jones, of AVhite Plains, on condition that it should 
be located there, but the offer was declined. 

Hinton James, the first graduate of .the University, 
was a nephew of Mrs. Lane, whose father. Colonel 
John Hinton, had two daughters who married mem- 
bers of the James family. Hinton James was the son 
of Captain John James, of the Revolution, and his 
wife Alice Hinton. Alice's sister, Elizabeth, married 
Thomas James. 



19 



Colonel Lane was twice married. Both of his wives 
were daughters of the well known Revolutionary sol- 
dier and statesman, Colonel John Hinton, of AVake 
County, and his wife, Grizelle Kimbrough. 

To his first wife, Maktha Hinton, Colonel Lane was 
married on the 9th of December, 1762. She died on 
September 9, 1771, leaving three sons. They w^ere : 

I. Henry Lane, born March 6, 1764^ w^ho married his 
first cousin, Mary Hinton (daughter of Major John 
Hinton, Jr., of Wake County), and left descendants. 
He died in Wake County in 1797. 

II. James Lane, who was born October 7, 1766." 

III. William Lane, who w^as born October 15, 1768. '^ 
Mary Hinton, the second w^ife of Joel Lane, to 

whom he was married in 1772, bore him nine children, 
as follows : 

I. Nancy Lane, born July 22, 1773. 

II. John Lane, born March 6, 1775, w^ho married Sa- 
rah Elizabeth Jones, daughter of Nathaniel Jones, of 
White Plains, Wake County, and left descendants. 
He removed to Marshall County, Tennessee, and died 
there in 1864. 

III. Martha Lane, born February 19, 1778, who was 
twice married : (first), to Dugald McKethen, hereto- 
fore mentioned ; (second), to Jonathan Brickell. She 
was Mr. Brickell' s second wife. Her death occurred 
in Raleigh, May 20, 1852. She had children, but no 
descendants are now living. 

IV. Elizabeth Lane, born August 6, 1780, who was 
the first wife of Stephen Haywood, of Raleigh, where 



*Whorf' the inarriaf?('S of Coloiu'l Lane's cliildren are not jjlven, it is l)PC'aus(' I 
have been unable to ascertain wlioni tiiey married. Some of his children may liave 
died 3'ounj^. James and William were living in 17«4 when their fatiu'r madi- liis 
will. As to other James Lanes, see note, page tt, ante. 



20 



she died March 7, 1805. She has descendants, but none 
are now living who bear the name of Haywood. 

V. Mary Lane, born January 1, 1783. 

yi. Thomas Lane, born September 12, 1785, who 
married Nancy Lane, daughter of his cousin and guar- 
dian, Martin Lane, heretofore mentioned. Thomas 
removed to Giles County, Tennessee, and died there 
March 29, 1832, leaving issue. 

VII. Dorothy Lane, born December 13, 1787, who was 
the second wife of Dr. Allen W. Gilchrist, and left 
descendants. Her marriage took place on May 29, 1806. 
Dr. Gilchrist was from Halifax County, North Caro- 
lina, but afterwards removed from the State. 

VIII. Joel Hinton Lane, born October 11, 1790, who 
married Mary Freeman, and died without issue, in 
Giles County, Tennessee, June 22, 1832. He was a vol- 
unteer from Wake County, North Carolina, in the War 
of 1812. 

IX. Grizelle Lane, born June 13, 1793, who married 
George Lillington Ryan, and died without issue, in 
Raleigh, March 4, 1808. 

Joel Lane's second wife, Mary, survived him less 
than a week, and died on the 3rd of April, 1795. 

In things spiritual, Colonel Lane was most exem- 
plary, and enforced strict religious observance upon 
all within his household. It has been noted that his 
ancestors were adherents of the Church of England ; 
so, when this sturdy pioneer came to the wilds of Wake 
County, the Book of Common Prayer came also. Un- 
der the English Church Establishment of that time, 
the territory embraced in Wake was known as the 
"Parish of St. Margaret." Though the adjacent coun- 
try was too thinly settled for the Church to thrive, the 



21 



Lane residence always remained the home of religion 
as well as of hospitality. Not only was the family 
called daily to prayer, but Colonel Lane himself ob- 
served each fast and other devotional exercise pre- 
scribed by the Church, in which he remained a com- 
municant up to the time of his death. At inter- 
vals, some regularly ordained clergyman would pass 
tlirough; and, on these occasions, younger members 
(d' the family were baptized. Among other clerical 
visitors, was Parson Micklejohn, of Hillsborough, 
whom *'Shocco'' Jones describes as "a high Cliurch- 
luan in religion and a high Tory in politics." When, 
some years after the Revolution, Bishop Ravenscroft 
came to Wake County to revive, under its new name, 
the Church of England, the Lanes could boast that in 
one quarter, at least, it had never been dormant. 

The death of Joel Lane occurred on the 29th day of 
March, 1795. In an address delivered in Raleigh, on 
August 24, 1867, Ex-Governor Swain (Colonel Lane's 
great- nephew) refers to the last resting place of the old 
patriot, saying that his remains "moulder in the midst 
of other unrecorded dead beneath the shade of a mul- 
berry on his ancient domain." There, indeed, is. his 
grave, of which no vestige now appears. The spot is 
in an open field (upon which the town is fast closing 
in), and lies a few feet east of Boylan Avenue, about 
thirty-live yards south of Morgan street. 

After the death of Joel Lane, his son Thomas, to 
whom he l)equeathed his residence,* sold it on Decem- 
ber 31, 1808, to Dr. Allen W. Uilchrist who married 
Colonel Lane's daughter. It was afterwards bought 



♦The Randall Ktc'hin>» Co., »>f Rah-iKli. i?* "<'nv propariiiK. mid will soon have for 
Bale, an etching of this Imilding. 



22 



by Peter Browne, a native of Scotland, who was an 
able lawyer, but withal a miser and utilitarian, re- 
specting nothing above its value in dollars and cents. 
Finding that the burying ground (where, also, many 
other early citizens, besides the Lanes, were interred) 
was an unprofitable x)iece of property, he had it plowed 
up and planted in cabbages! If one leaves this spot, and 
walks about a mile and a half eastward along Morgan 
Street to what Raleigh people now call the Old Grave- 
yard, there he will find the slab which marks the 
grave of Browne himself. It states that he died Octo- 
ber 26, 1833, "aged 6711 years." Verily, one may 
think, Methuselah would turn green with envy, and 
feel youthful, could he read this. What means it ? 
may be asked by another, less credulous. The solu- 
tion is this : Originally the inscription read, "67" 
years ; and some vandal, with a good knowledge of 
stone-cutting, did the rest by adding the two other 
figures. Thus the grave of this desecrator has not itself 
escaped desecration. 

Before concluding our sketch, further mention 
should be made of the house in which Colonel Lane 
lived, and which was built by him. It still stands, and 
is the oldest house in Raleigh — much older than the 
city itself. William Boylan, editor of the Minerva^ 
bought it from the aforementioned Peter Browne, in 
1818, and it has been in possession of the Boylans ever 
since. It faces east on the avenue named for that 
family. To one of the present generation, it is an un- 
imposing structure ; but, when built, was considered 
quite palatial. Two stories, low in pitch, with a 
steep double-slanting roof and a small wing on the 
south side, is the house as it stands. But it seldom 



28 



fails to attract attention. Its quaintness of architec- 
ture speaks of a generation now passed into history — 
of Tryon, marching witli liis army against the Regu- 
lators ; of Burke, Spaight, Lenoir, and their compa- 
triots in the Revolutionary assembly which met be- 
neath its roof; of the Hintons, Hunters, and Jones's, 
of early Wake. 

" A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall, 

Now somewhat fallen to decay, 
With weather-stains upon the wall. 

And stairways worn and crazy doors. 

And creaking and uneven floors. 
And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall — 

A region of repose it seems, 

A place of slumber and of dreams !" 




LE N '10 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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